"Born Too Late"

While reading E.A. Robinson's "Miniver Cheevy", I couldn't help but feel a connection to Cheevy. There have been countless times where I've watched Sixteen Candles, or The Breakfast Club, and I wished I could travel back in time to live in the quirky and laid-back 1980's. What girl wouldn't want to be Molly Ringwald in a high-school dramatic film with a cheesy romantic ending?
And then there's Miniver Cheevy, who "sighed for what was not, And dreamed of Thebes and Camelot," (Robinson). He wanted to escape the "commonplace" , or the straight-and-narrow life plan set for him. E.A. Robinson makes it clear that Miniver Cheevy used his longing for the past as an excuse to escape his dreary present, "Miniver cursed the commonplace and eyed a khaki suit with loathing; He missed the medieval grace of iron clothing," (Robinson). How could he miss something that he had never even experienced? Miniver could have watched movies set in the medieval era, or read many books on the time period, but that isn't the same as living in the medieval times. Therefore he wouldn't be able to miss it. It's like me, sixteen years old, claiming that I miss the good old 1960's. I would just sound ridiculous.
Robinson presents a character that is dwelling on the fact that current times are terrible, instead of facing the obstacles in his life. It's almost as if Miniver uses the medieval facade as a shield to block him from admitting the truth: that he's looking upon the past with longing and complaining about the present instead of improving his situation.
Although, at the end of the poem Miniver Cheevy contradicts himself, "Miniver scored the gold he sought, but sore annoyed was he without it...Miniver Cheevy, born too late, scratched his head and kept on thinking; Miniver coughed, and called it fate, and kept on drinking," (Robinson). He complains about his straight-and-narrow life, but without it Cheevy would not have the "gold", or money, that he receives. In the end, he would not actually trade his dull life for a medieval, heroic one. Miniver Cheevy just likes to dream of it.